Enterprise Reporting for Dummies

The No Train, No Gain site website - a training resource for journalists - has a page on enterprise reporting, a sort of "how to" guide that I thought my tech PR readers would find interesting.   I first saw this in The PR Practitioner's post about dealing with reporters.

It seems to me that reverse engineering the piece can help tech PR folks who wish to have a better understanding of the realities of an enterprise reporter's job (this assumes, of course that the article reflects widely held views and best practices.)

The article seems to be written for editors of daily publications.  Its main points are :

• Give reporters more latitude in covering the enterprise, covering tech is not like covering general news.
• Let them go where the story takes them

There is often the debate in PR about which relationships can be most productive to cultivate: is it the beat reporters, or their editors - those who arguably have more clout at a publication?  The gist of the article is that editors should respect the specialized knowledge and news instincts that enterprise tech reporters (ideally) have.

Here are some excerpts:

Let the reporter manage her/his beat. Are you really listening to what the reporter is telling you or are you coming up with your own ideas? Before you start taking over your reporter's story, listen. This is not to say you can't help shape the story. But the reporter is out on the street, working sources, noticing trends. Let them take the lead on the enterprise.

Don't hold your reporter to their initial angle if they've learned something different.

Don't force them to commit until you've given them time to get into the subject. You and are your reporter should be talking about the story all along the way, and eventually you will need to focus, but try to give a little latitude at the front-end.

Let the reporter decide deadlines for the enterprise story.

Every meeting does not a news story make. This goes along with the above. Don't penalize reporters by making them write a story from a meeting that didn't yield any news.